Surgical robots at large in the path lab

FROM Isaac Asimov’s “three laws of robotics” to RoboCop, science fiction has repeatedly warned us of the dangers of handing robots autonomy. That is why surgical robots have never been more than large, complex instruments wielded by human hands: an autonomous robot with a scalpel is too much of a risk. But replace that scalpel with a scanner, and the patient with a corpse, and medical robots can finally break free (see “Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies”). Until one goes on the rampage around the pathology lab, of course…